“Stand up all the night and call the fight, let your mind go wild before the light Here we come, the army of the night!”

The Wolves are back!
The Wolves are back!
The Wolves are back!

Theatric rock has morphed and evolved from the days of Queen and Alice Cooper’s groundbreaking antics in the 1970’s and through the 1980’s to Rob Zombie’s Horror-esque outings in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s to Nightwish and Epica’s symphonic triumphs to the modern day. Lately though, from about 2015 and onwards, several bands have taken the cinematic, theatrical, and bombastic shows to the next level. The first, and no doubt most well known is the mighty Sabaton from Sweden, with their epic tunes taken from the pages of world history. Next up, and by no means less great, are the titans from Germany, Powerwolf. They don’t just go on tour and throw concerts. Oh no, there is a damn good reason their shows are called Heavy Metal Mass, to witness them live is like being in the most intense church of all.

I still remember the first tune I ever heard from the Wolves, “Demons Are A Girl’s Best Friend”. I was utterly hooked. From that point on, I dove into the Wolves’ catalog and found so many killer tracks, I was dying to see them live. Sadly, I’m still waiting for that little happenstance. Ah well, let’s get break down the album here.

The show starts off with what in my mind has to be the greatest intro ever laid down on tape. The Monumental Mass Theme is such an adrenaline builder, that builds and builds into a bombastically immense kickstart to the double kick melee that Bless ‘em With the Blade starts with. Most live albums though, you don’t really hear the audience at all during the songs, but here, oh man, the crowd in Munich was louder than the band was at times, and it just gets louder and wilder with every tune thereafter. Some of the biggest bangers from the group are pure sonic forces to be reckoned with when you add the live crowd in. Songs like Incense & Iron, Army of the Night, Amen & Attack, Dancing With The Dead, Armata Strigoi, 1589, Demons Are A Girl’s Best Friend, Fire & Forgive, Heretic Hunters, Sanctified With Dynamite, We Drink Your Blood, Werewolves of Armenia are all massive crowd chargers, and you can physically hear the crowd unanimously rocking out and thumping along with each song. The Wolves’ Heavy Metal Mass makes a Southern Baptist revival seem link a Gregorian chant session with how much power and energy flows through.

 

Just watching some of the official clips the band has released from the event show how fierce and pumped up the crowd was, but so was the band. Attila Dorn was far above his “A” game that night, his voice, while always top notch, put in an extra effort and boosted his status into an arena metal pastor leading the gospel of Metal. He has to be up there with the Rob Halfords, Bruce Dickinsons, Freddie Mercurys, and Joacim Cans of the world that can control crowds THAT massive. It’s an awesome sight.

The brothers Greywolf (Charles and Matthew) were on fire with their axe slinging and note bending. I could only dream of being a small fraction of that good on guitar. They also have an amazing stage presence from what I saw. Roel van Helden blasted the beats and held time to legendary German precision, while the maestro himself, Falk Maria Schlegel held court on his throne behind the organ, intensifying the drama and grandeur of the night’s proceedings. This must be what living on Mount Olympus has to be like. Just my 2 euros worth of an opinion there.

All in all, I gave the album a score of 9.75, simply because I wasn’t there! Other than that, it has pole vaulted itself into one of my top 3 live albums, behind Judas Priest’s Live ’98 Metal Meltdown and Hammerfall’s Live at Dalhalla. They are currently on their Wake Up The Wicked Tour with Hammerfall and Wind Rose supporting in Europe, hopefully they make their way over to North America with this lineup. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Tracklist:
Intro – Monumental Mass Theme
Bless ‘Em With the Blade
Incense & Iron
Army of the Night
Sinners of the Seven Seas
Amen & Attack
Dancing With the Dead
Armata Strigoi
1589
Demons Are A Girl’s Best Friend
Stossbeget
Fire & Forgive
We Don’t Wanna Be No Saints
Alive or Undead
Heretic Hunters
Sainted by the Storm
Blood For Blood (Faoladh)
Sanctified With Dynamite
We Drink Your Blood
Werewolves of Armenia

Line Up:
Vocals: Attila Dorn
Organ: Falk Maria Schlegel
Guitars: Charles & Matthew Greywolf
Drums: Roel van Helden